Touring!

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SCB – Gala “Anniversary” 2009

14.12.2009 in Touring! | No comments

Sporting Club Belvaux is a local artistic gymnastics club and these guys organize a large show on a regular basis. Stage design has been provided for the 6th or 7th time by myself and 2 colleges. Due to time restrictions and several budget cuts, we had to come up with a design that could be setup in less than 5 hours by 4 technicians (and local helpers). The scale of the scene is always about 30 *20 meters and to spice things up, there is no way to fly anything in the venue. Lucky me. :-)

The final setup consisted of:

  • 15 Martin Mac 250 Wash
  • 8 Martin Mac 250 Entour
  • 2 Martin Atomic 3000

on the 30m backtruss and 2 8m sidetrusses

Front lights were:

  • 15 ABD F201
  • 10 Martin Mac 700

and about 10 ADB C103 as houselights.

All of this controlled by a Flying Pig Wholehog iPC Console. The Video World consisted of 2 Barco R12+ Beamers projecting on a slate grey backdrop. This mean a loss in brightness, but gave us the opportunity to change between gobo patterns from the Mac 700, video animation or laser effects (oh yeah we had lasers to) without having a this “blank screen frame – look”. Video was controlled by 3 Dataton Watchout Servers (1 Production / 2 Presentation). To feed the servers with live footage in several images the Servers were equipped with grabber cards that got their sigal from a JVC GY-DV5000E Camera (oldschool, I know). Most content was pre-produced and preprogrammed in out labs and copied to the rental servers on site.

To make the beams visible, 5 Martin (or Jem?) Magnum 1800 ere on site as well as a Roadie Extreme. Unfortunately the Roadie caused severe problems on the second show day so we had to switch it off. :-( Sad but true.

And as usual I have no idea what was going on in the sound department. :-)

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10 Years – Cheers!

26.10.2009 in Touring! | No comments

Stage design for a local band celebrating their 10th anniversary. For this occasion the 10 musicians (11 during that time) invited all former members of the band to join them for one very special evening. An because that still wasn’t enough pain for the sound guys, several brass musicians and a percussionist were invited to participate. In the end we had 2 Keyboarders, a brass section of 7 people, 1 drummer, 2 guitarists, 1 percussionist 1 or 2 bass players (can’t even remember) an not less than 6 Singers on stage. (I was ill and could not participate, I got sick in the evening so the remaining guys had a few cm to move ;-) )

As you can see the stage had to accommodate many musicians and instruments and this would be the reason why the first idea was rejected. The idea of a large X-shaped (X being a roman 10) came up, open to the audience on 3 sides, giving a feeling of having a party in the crowd. Unfortunately the musicians were afraid that not everybody would fit onto the stage, and communication with the audience would become to difficult. After knowing the figures of people onstage, I guess they were right.

The bad came up with the idea to use the venues (weird) shape and build a large L shaped stage, which would give a large opening towards the audience, without losing to much space. This made it rather complicated to find a way to light the show without burning most of the budget. (As the budget was needed for the Sound department and their awful expensive desks :-) )

The final design consisted of a 6 x 13m rig, as support for about 10 ADB F201 Fresnels, 4 Martin Mac 250 Wash and 1 Aircraft Set. Furthermore it was the mother grid for 4 trusses, each 7 meters long with 2 Martin Mac 250 Entour, 2 Molefay Blinders and 4 Eurolite Led Par36. 2 Mac 250 Wash were positioned on each side of the stage go lighten the singers. Moreover 2 Martin Atomic 3000 were installed on the sides for special effects. 2 more aircraft Sets were mounted on the floor, and a 9m x 9m L-shaped truss, mostly used to hang the backdrop; 4 more Molefay blinders were installed on the front truss.

PS: I’m really sorry for the crappy pictures but I didn’t have the time to take good ones. And iPhone3G users should know how bad smartphone pictures can be ;-)

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U2 360°Tour 2009, Wembley Stadium, London, UK

16.08.2009 in Touring!, Travel! | No comments

or … I still haven’t heard what I was hoping for

Last night I saw the 4th 360° Show on my personal 360°Tour in London. Amazing night! what a Location, what a band, what a crowd. Unfortunately “Mysterious ways” didn’t make it onto the setlist … again. This time I was standing at quite the same place as in Gelsenkirchen 2 weeks ago. Great view, great feeling.

Read the rest of this entry »

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U2 360° Tour, Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany

4.08.2009 in Touring!, Travel! | No comments

Still looking for Mysterious ways.

Everything about the lighting and the stage has been said in the previous post about the concert in Paris an Amsterdam. This was the first one, I was from the Front of Stage side. Quite a view … different experience again.

More pictures on flickr: U2 Gelsenkirchen Set

Complete Setlist after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

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U2 360° Tour, Amsterdam ArenA, The Netherlands

22.07.2009 in Touring! | No comments

Saw U2 for the second time on their 360° Tour in Amsterdam yesterday evening. After quite a stressful drive to the capital of the Netherlands, and the quest for the right train to the Stadium (thanks to the dutch guys who were so kind to help us out) we got there several minutes before the support act. This time it was Snow Patrol who were better received by the audience than the Kaiser Chief’s were in Paris (I guess it’s the French’s fault :-) )

While standing on the stage left side in Paris (close to the outer ring) and having a good view on Adam Clayton, I had seats for the show in Amsterdam. Due to the fact that we were sitting basically under the arena’s ceiling, I had a whole different experience. The visual effects and the looks of the lighting work very differently if you are far from the stage. Not in a bad way, just a different experience.

Still no “Mysterious ways” for me, I hoped they’d play the song, due to the fact that it was the 2nd show day in Amsterdam and it often was on the 2nd setlist for a city … but not this time.

The Claw in Amsterdam

More pictures on flickr: U2 360° Tour Amsterdam Set

Complete setlist after the break.

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U2 360° Tour, Stade de France, Paris

12.07.2009 in Touring! | No comments

Just came back from Paris to se the first of 4 Shows of U2′s gigantic 360° Tour. Much has been said about the Stage, but words can’t describe that construction. Mark Fisher, the guys At Stufish and Willie Williams did something epic here. Even in a large Arena like the Stade de France, the stage, looking like a huge space station, that landed on the ground, appears huge.

The lighting, which consists of about 200 PRG Bad Boys (Icon) is very basic, but does the job perfectly well. They are mostly used to wash the band on stage and light the stage itself with different colors and gobo patterns. And the 360° Video Wall … let’s say it is surprising. Mark Fisher and Willie Williams are even here able to have something sneaky op their slave.

Complete setlist after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

Sophia & William Fitzsimmons @ den atelier

21.05.2009 in Listen!, Touring! | No comments

No 24 hours after having seen the hard-rockers of AC/DC in Cologne, I’m back at home and in my favorite club. Sophia are playing at den atelier with support act William Fitzsimmons.
First of all, this man amazed me. He’s a gifted singer/songwriter who plays sad and slow folk songs, just he and his guitar. Buy his records (or download them on iTunes, whatever)

Sophia were great, the place was less crowded than their last gig in Luxembourg, but this time it seemed that only the fans where there, and less people who showed up without knowing anything about the band and the music. A circumstance that pleased me, an it felt like the band liked it too.

All in all a great concert evening, very different than the night before.

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AC/DC Black Ice Tour – Cologne, Germany 19/05/2009

20.05.2009 in Listen!, Touring! | No comments

I had the great luck to get tickets for this AC/DC Tour (german stadium concerts were sold out in 77 minutes). They are one of the few bands that one has absolutely to see in your life (or theirs) comparable to the Rolling Stones or for british heavy metal fans maybe Iron Maiden, too.

As a stage design adept, I was amazed by their setup. Even with exclusivly up to date gear being used, the influence of  a classic rock’n'roll stage with it’s tons of par cans was clearly visible as intended by the designers. Centerpiece of the stage was an impressive train influenced by a famous train accident in 1895 at the “Gare de Montparnasse”, Paris. In a animated video intro, the Rock’n'Roll train, was heading towards a city, when Angus was seduced by 2 girls who made the train derail. After several Pyro effects the LED Wall spitt and revealed the Stage and the train replica.

The lightning grid was inspired by the architecture of several train stations, with it’s large roof arcs. The many washes and Studio Beam fixtures gave the stage a neat rock’n'roll look.

The setlist had a reasonable lengt and all the most wanted songs could be found in the set. Angus’ solo in the center of the stadium was a real highlight and this not only because of the 6 follofspots used. The crowd was fantastic, all in all a great night and superb show.

Thanks to AC/DC and their road crew.
For those about to rock, I salute you.

Cologne - People waiting for AC/DC AC/DC Black Ice Tour - Stagedesign

AC/DC Solo AC/DC Stage - Hells Bells

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